Articles Posted inResisting Arrest

We are seeing an increase in news about people resisting arrest. These mishaps began to enter the public consciousness with the Rodney King video release, and continue through situations like the Trayvon Martin case in Florida. Most people who are arrested will not resist the arrest, all too often out of fear of police brutality, regardless of whether the arrest is lawful or not. However, some individuals who have not done anything wrong will resist an unlawful arrest, and rightfully so, considering the arrestee had not done anything wrong. What does resisting an unlawful arrest get you? Usually in more trouble.

Resisting Arrest and the Consequences

Resisting an arrest usually involves fighting a police officer, running away from a police officer, or threatening a police officer. In most jurisdictions resisting an arrest is an additional charge that can be added to the underlying charge for which you are arrested. So what type of consequences come along with a resisting arrest charge? Resisting arrest is considered a Class A Misdemeanor. Under this class of crime, the Court can order jail for 48 hours or order you to perform community service for at least 100 hours. The resisting arrest conviction does not resolve with the initial reason why you were arrested in the first place.

A three car pileup occurred last night around the 1100 block of East Washington Avenue in Escondido. According to police, a black truck driving around 9p.m. crashed into a silver sedan; makes and models of the vehicles aren’t released. When the truck rammed into the silver sedan, the impact propelled the sedan to roll over and smash into another sedan, white in color. The truck driver, the driver at fault, attempted to escape and make it a hit-n-run case, but he was immediately taken into custody on suspicion of driving under the influence (DUI). Luckily, none of the individuals involved were harmed by the accident/rolling vehicles, but particles on the street were a hazard to other drivers on the road. The impact caused dangerous debris to slide across the road to the extent that police had to close the road to traffic while the scene was investigated and the shards and scrap metals were removed from the road.

Most people know to avoid the authorities if they are doing something illegal, but not this guy! Twenty-three year old Israel Guadalupe Garcia was taken into custody after he impaled his Toyota pick-up truck into the side of a San Diego County Sheriff’s patrol car. Garcia was originally pulled over for running a red light, but as deputies approached the truck to question him, he put the truck in reverse; crashing it into the patrol car behind him. After crashing into the patrol car, Garcia led the police on a short chase, ultimately resulting in him losing control of the truck and hitting a tree next to a home in Alvarado Terrace. Authorities were able to take him into custody and said he showed signs of driving under the influence of alcohol. Once in custody, the police checked Garcia’s criminal history to reveal his license was suspended along with numerous other arrests on his record. Luckily, no one was injured during the incident.

After an extensive vehicular pursuit, Jonathan Daniel Draudt, 51, who was taken into custody for suspicion of DUI and for evading police, ended his evasion by crashing into a building; he was taken to a nearby emergency room. This morning, however, Draudt displayed he had not yet learned his lesson on attempting to escape from the authorities. Draudt, from Oceanside, put his hands on and pushed a police officer as he attempted to escape and tried to run from the Santa Rosa Memorial Hospital. The police officer tackled Draudt to the floor and booked him at the Sonoma County Jail, with the possibility of adding resisting arrest to his record.

The whole situation started with Draudt leading the police on a chase after he ran through a red light around midnight. Draudt’s vehicle, a Jeep Rubicon, eventually crashed into a building during the chase, causing a gas and water leak; fire fighters kept the leaks under control. After the accident, Draudt attempted to run again but was caught and taken into custody when he tried to jump a fence north of the crash. Apparently there were two passengers inside of his Jeep the entire time, but they were extracted from the vehicle and sent to the same hospital Draudt tired to flee from. The passengers were not charged or arrested.

A man from San Diego, Christopher Cheatum, was supposedly vacationing in Florida when he got into some trouble for driving under the influence. Cheatum was drunken driving when he started taking his vehicle in circles around fuel pumps at a Love’s gas station on County Road 255 in Madison County, Florida. This strange behavior alerted nearby law enforcement and they quickly approached the scene, leading Cheatum to attempt to escape. Luckily, deputies caught him quickly before he could get onto the roads and harm himself or others. Officers say he reeked of alcohol and his speech was all over the place in slurs. Cheatum was swiftly arrested for DUI and taken into custody. Apparently he partied a little too hard on his vacation and hopefully he learned his lesson and found himself a good lawyer!